Coffee grounds add depth to college compost

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Melissa Zamora, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi student and president of the newly formed Islander Green Team, carries buckets of coffee grounds to the campus Starbucks for compost at the Islander Gardens on Monday, Nov. 21. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times

Melissa Zamora,Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi student and president of the Islander Green Team, places buckets of coffee grounds from the campus Starbucks into the back of a tricycleMonday, Nov. 21,to bring to the Islander Gardens compost. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times

Melissa Zamora, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi student and president of the Islander Green Team, places buckets of coffee grounds from the campus Starbucks into the back of a tricycle Monday, Nov. 21, to bring to the Islander Gardens compost. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times

Melissa Zamora, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi student and president of the Islander Green Team, smells a hand full of the Islander Gardens compost Monday, Nov. 21, after dumping a bucket of coffee grounds from the campus Starbucks into the mix. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times

The compost of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi's Islander Gardens is a mixture that includes coffee grounds from the campus Starbucks, said Melissa Zamora, a student and president of the Islander Green Team. Zamora delivered some of the coffee grounds to the compost Monday, Nov. 21. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times

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Melissa Zamora, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi student and president of the Islander Green Team, smells a hand full of the Islander Gardens compost Monday, Nov. 21, after dumping a bucket of coffee grounds from the campus Starbucks into the mix.(Photo11: Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times)

A member of the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Islander Green club, Zamora hops on a donated tricycle and heads to the campus Starbucks to retrieve buckets of used coffee grounds. She then rides to the four-year-old campus community garden, which is irrigated by rainwater collection tanks.

She dumps the coffee grounds into a maturing compost pile, which is full of nitrogen and carbon-rich materials like fruit and vegetable scraps, dried leaves and shredded paper and newspaper. The pile is close to being tested, and if it works on a small scale, the club will be able to fertilize the garden.

"It's important because we are the next generation coming of age. We're the next one to take care of the nation and the planet," Zamora said. "We need to be leaders, lead by example and educate students in solutions that they can maybe take into the real world."

Corn, cucumbers, herbs, eggplant, lettuce and sweet potatoes are flourishing this time of year in the garden made up of 22 raised boxes, Zamora said. Maintenance is done by students and staff.

The coffee shop churns out grounds by the hour, which makes for a surplus that can be used in this burgeoning composting project. The club also wants to educate its peers about the easy availability of composting ingredients in an urban environment.

"As students, we use so many resources, and there's a major waste output," she said. "This gives them an opportunity to have a green space of their own."

The Islander Green club started in 2011 and is funded by an environmental service fee applied to each student's tuition. The fee has paid for green initiatives such as expanded LED lighting in campus buildings, hydration stations to promote reusable water bottles and solar powered charging stations for electronic devices, said Nathaniel C. Galvan, a specialist with the school's environmental, health and safety department.

The new composting project began this semester and is modeled on efforts by Texas A&M University-Kingsville's Office of Campus Sustainability to compost on their campus.

The Rocket Compost vessel — the first of its kind in Texas — is outside the Javelina dining hall and uses kitchen scraps, wood chips and animal bedding from the school's farm, said Eliasz Twitty, recycling coordinator.

"At this time, we are only using pre-consumer waste in our composter, but in the future, we plan on using post-consumer waste, or scraps from students' plates," Twitty said. "We use the compost in our Javelina Pallet Garden, which is a small organic vegetable and butterfly garden behind (our office)."

Seasonal vegetables, plants and flowers that support butterfly migration are in the garden, which is made of reused pallets from area businesses, she said.

The department is in charge of the campus recycling program, the ReCycle Bikes program, which lets students rent bicycles for the semester in exchange for service hours, and peer-to-peer education, ecological representatives and put together the fall sustainability fair and Earth Week events.

Starbucks coffee grounds have been used in similar composting initiatives. The now 20-year-old Grounds for Your Garden campaign provides free bags of used coffee grounds for composting on a first-come, first-served basis in participating stores.

Nearly seven years ago, a supply chain division manager for a Japanese Starbucks began recycling coffee grounds to get in compliance with a food recycling law requiring companies in the restaurant industry to reduce or recycle more than half their food waste within five years. Those coffee grounds are turned into cattle feed and used for compost.

This Islander Green project is another way to change apathetic attitudes toward sustainability, said senior Maria Cherry.

"We as the students have the power to make change," Cherry said. "From the beginning until now, we have come so far and it's exciting to see where it's going."

In an accidental collaboration, A&M-Corpus Christi engineering students are using the composting in experiments, Zamora said. She's hoping others will see the project's benefits for study.

"We're hoping as a college, we can be inspirational for the town (to make changes)," Cherry said.